The transferring of liquid material or mixtures/slurries of liquid and solid material from one vessel to another has typically been done in one of two ways. The material can be sucked from the source vessel into a discharge vessel via vacuum, or pushed from the source vessel to a discharge vessel under positive pressure with a pump.
Due to the limited pressure differential available with vacuum driven systems, material cannot be transferred over large elevation differences or long lengths of hose.
Furthermore, vacuum systems tend to be large, heavy, vehicle or trailer transported systems that cannot reach every source vessel.
When removing material from a source vessel that is not capable of being pressurized the pump must be placed near, into, or under the source vessel to collect material from the source vessel. This will often place significant limitations on the system.
Additionally, the elevation differences and hose lengths utilized on the inlet side of pump systems are even more limited than vacuum systems.
Pumps also have trouble pumping mixtures or slurries containing large or fibrous solid materials, because they have small openings that tend to plug or foul and/or, moving, reciprocating and/or rotating components that become jammed or entangled.
Using pumps larger than the application would normally require, provides larger opening sizes to help prevent fouling/plugging. This technique often has limited benefit because of physical or size limitations and oversizing these pumps also results in a loss of efficiency.
The configuration of the source vessel may also pose a challenge. Limited access for installing a pump on the interior or underneath the vessel often makes it difficult to draw the material into the pump so that it can be pumped away.
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.